


We'll Never Know If We Never Try

by mitosisjones



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alcohol, F!Byleth, F/F, Fire Emblem: Three Houses Black Eagles Route, M/M, Post-Time Skip, Pre-Relationship, felix and dorothea mentioned, just a couple of Bros, trying to get the other to confess
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 08:24:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,540
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20422907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mitosisjones/pseuds/mitosisjones
Summary: “To our broken hearts and unrequited love! We’ll never know if we never try!”Sylvain has a crush and Byleth knows this for a fact. Byleth is terrible at dating and Sylvain knows this for a fact. Enter a bottle of whiskey and some deep conversation and maybe these two can convince the other to get their head out of their ass.





	We'll Never Know If We Never Try

**Author's Note:**

> I've only played the black eagles route so yes I'm an Edelgard sympathizer, please leave all comments about that in a yelp review for your local mcdonalds
> 
> also sorry if byleth is ooc, I wanted her to be a dramatic, useless lesbian much like myself

“Sylvain!”

Sylvain had been lying under a tree in the courtyard people watching when he heard his name called out. He looked up to see the professor waving at him from across the way. He raised an arm in greeting.

“How about a drink? My treat!” She said as she approached. Sylvain could see a bottle in her hand that he hadn’t noticed before. Judging by the small smile on her face, she’d had a few sips from it already.

“You know I’d never say no to that! I hear there’s a bar in town that has drinkable ale and will let us bring our own in.” Sylvain threw his arm around Byleth’s shoulders partly to keep her from running too far ahead. Why she always ran everywhere she went is a mystery no one has been able to solve.

She shook her head. “No, tonight’s more of a hooch in the dining room kind of night. Join me, won’t you? They say misery loves company.” Her smile grew more sad as she spoke, so Sylvain just tightened his arm around her and aimed for the dining hall. She seemed like she needed to vent, and he needed a drink.

They chose a spot at the very end of the table in a darkly lit corner, Sylvain having pilfered two glasses from the counter as they passed. Byleth immediately uncorked the bottle she’d been carrying and the strong scent of whiskey wafted over to him. She poured two generous glasses before raising her own in a toast.

“To our broken hearts and unrequited love! We’ll never know if we never try!” 

She let out a melancholy chuckle and Sylvain, who had raised his glass to clink hers, suddenly brought it back down. He laughed and shook his head at his teacher, taking a generous sip before speaking, “What do you mean “our”? I’ve never had my heart broken, never really cared enough to have it broken.”

Byleth looked at him with pity in her glassy eyes as she lowered her glass. “Come on now, let’s not lie to ourselves. You’ve been in love since your school days, you’ve just never acted upon it. With this war we’ve committed ourselves to, why not just confess to him and be done with it? Broken hearts heal faster when you’re not holding on to false hope.”

Sylvain quickly drained his glass and poured another. Damn, why did she have to be so frank? He thought he’d been so careful, flirting with every girl he came across in an attempt to allay suspicion of his preferences. He even tried flirting with the professor a few times before she firmly asserted that nothing could ever happen between them.

“Do you want me to go first? Lay out my sorrows of the night so you don’t feel so alone? Well I asked Dorothea on a date and she rejected me. Laid my heart out on the floor and she just stomped all over it, said it didn’t sound like fun. Fine! So be it! Better to just get it out of the way so I can take my broken heart and find another beautiful girl to fall in love with who will also break my un-beating heart, and so the cycle continues.” Byleth plops her head down and speaks into the table, “Am I just unlovable Sylvain? Am I destined to die alone at the end of it all?”

Sylvain reached across the table to move her glass out of the way and tentatively puts his hand on the back of her head. “Woah, woah where’d this come from? One rejection from a girl doesn’t make you unlovable! I should know…”

She raises her head and picks up the glass of whiskey. She sips it as she slowly crosses her arms and works out her thoughts. “Are we doing the right thing? Is Edelgard’s war worth fighting? With every burning village, every former student I must fight, I wonder if it’s a war that must be fought. But then I remember Miklan, Lysithea and her siblings, Edelgard and hers. So much suffering and for what? A bit of power that we’ve decided is the only thing that decides someones worth? The noble families are going to destroy themselves at this rate, if they haven’t already destroyed their children.”

Sylvain downed his glass at her last comment. This war had to work out. “I don’t think I could continue on with the way things have always been. An heir is only legitimate if they have a crest? It’s bullshit! We’re left with no choice in the matter, since our house will simply end if we don’t marry and have children, one of which must also have a crest and we put the same burden onto them. I’ve always been attracted to men and women, but my future had to be with a woman. If Edelgard is right, and does right by her promises, then maybe I won’t have to follow this path I was forced on at birth. Maybe I could marry someone I actually love, adopt some kids in the future if we want. The idea of being married with kids used to terrify me but being married to _him_, and raising kids with _him_…it’s not as scary as I once thought.”

“You need to tell him Sylvain. We see so much death on the battlefield, any day could be our last. You need to tell him now, and spend as much time with him as possible before something happens. My father died wanting to tell me so much, but all he left me was a ring and a legacy. I thought perhaps Dorothea, but no, she wants nothing to do with me.”

“What was it exactly you said to her professor?”

“Huh? Oh I asked if she wanted to join me for some fishing on our day off, and perhaps we could cook them up for dinner afterward. She just laughed, said she wasn’t interested, and walked away with my heart shattered on the ground.”

Sylvain gaped at her for a moment before asking, “Professor, did you seriously think Dorothea would want to go fishing? Especially on a date? I think you need to talk to her again because it sounds like she wasn’t interested in fishing, not you.”

Byleth blinked owlishly at him before slowly refilling her glass and drinking it.

“I…think I might be an idiot. I think I might be the stupidest person to ever exist. She hates fishing, what was I thinking? Of course she’d say no! Maybe I could take her to a concert, or dancing! Yes, there’s the little band that always plays in the square in the village, I could take her there before dinner, or maybe tea.” She was getting excited again, the liquor making her feel warm inside once again. Maybe she didn’t screw it all up! “Sylvain, I need to talk to Dorothea, and you need to talk to Felix! Neither of us needs to have broken hearts today!”

He smiled at her, and Byleth grinned back, both so intensely wanting this love to work out. “I think you’re right professor. I’m sick of this, this heartache. I’m gonna tell Felix that I love him, that I want to kiss his stupid, grumpy, handsome face and maybe one day I’ll marry him but first I just really want to kiss him.”

He finished off his glass of whiskey and stood up before pitching over sideways and barely catching himself. “Uh professor? How much of that did we drink?”

She upended the bottle and a scant drop fell out. She looked back at him and met his eyes before busting into laughter. “All of it, it seems! Oh Goddess, tonight has been a night, hasn’t it?”

“That it has.”

She slid off her chair and sat on the carpeted floor “What do you say we leave the heartfelt confessions until tomorrow night? I have a feeling we’ll be working through this whiskey until mid afternoon.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, I’m barely even tipsy!” He laughed, but joined her on the floor nevertheless. He laid back and stared at the spinning ceiling. “Thanks for tonight professor, I don’t think I’d ever have the courage to seek happiness if you weren’t constantly challenging me to go find it.”

She laid down beside him, moving her coat around to act as a blanket over the both of them. “I think I did pretty well with the whole teaching thing despite being barely three years older than you lot. Definitely had to beat some sense into some of you nobles though.”

He laughed and tucked under the massive coat. “Ya know, if I weren’t utterly in love with my best friend and you weren’t a hopeless lesbian, we’d make a pretty good couple.”

Byleth snorts and slaps him on the arm. 

* * *

The next morning, the two are rudely awoken by an angry head chef and shuffle back to their own quarters to sleep off the rest of their hangovers. Right before dinner, Byleth and Sylvain emerge from their quarters, salute each other, and head off in the direction of the gazebo and training grounds, respectively. 


End file.
